Jimmy Andrews

Jimmy Andrews, who has died aged 85, was a skilful winger for West Ham in the
early 1950s. Blessed with a cultured left foot, he was part of a celebrated
team that also featured Noel Cantwell and Malcolm Allison, and shared with
them a thoughtful approach to the game that eventually took shape in the
club’s so-called “Academy of Football”.

The Academy approach focused on two things: bringing skilful youth players through the ranks and ensuring an enlightened passing game on the pitch. It was a system that would see West Ham produce such players as Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst.

The Academy’s foundations were established during the reign (1950-61) of manager Ted Fenton, who brought in Andrews from Dundee in 1951 at a cost of £4,750. Fenton also signed the flamboyant centre half Malcolm Allison and the prolific scorer John Dick. But perhaps his canniest deal was with the proprietors of Cassettari’s Café, opposite the Hammers’ Boleyn Ground. Fenton arranged for the café to become an unofficial mess for the players, a place where a cup of tea, a fry-up, and a cheery welcome were guaranteed.

It was Allison, principally, who held court there. But Jimmy Andrews frequently dropped in to share his ideas with team-mates. Club legend has that it was on Cassettari’s tabletops, with mugs and salt and pepper pots serving to illustrate their tactics, that the Academy’s brain trust formulated the ideas that would see West Ham rise to glory under Ron Greenwood in the 1960s.

Jimmy Andrews was born at Invergordon on February 1 1927 and after five years at Dundee made his debut with Second Division West Ham in a 3-3 thriller at home to Everton on November 24 1951. He would go on to make 120 appearances for the club before leaving for Leyton Orient. The last of his 22 goals, the winner against Plymouth, came in March 1956 in his final game in claret and blue.

“He was one of the group that would spend hours thinking and talking about the game,” recalled former wing-half Frank O’Farrell. “He was a natural outside-left with a lovely left foot.”

Andrews made 35 appearances for Leyton Orient and played a further 82 games for QPR before retiring and moving into management. His cultured footballing philosophy was then all the rage, as the tactics of the great Hungarian team led by Ferenc Puskas filtered down to clubs, notably Tottenham Hotspur under Bill Nicholson. After spells at QPR and at Chelsea under Tommy Docherty, Andrews was appointed youth team coach at Spurs.

He then joined Cardiff as assistant manager to his old team-mate O’Farrell, taking sole charge in 1974 after O’Farrell left to manage Iran. Cardiff were relegated from Division Two in his first full season at the helm, only to be promoted again the following year. In his 190 matches in charge, Cardiff won games 63 and drew 51. He was sacked in 1978, becoming a scout for Southampton, eventually settling near Cardiff at Cowbridge, where he coached local teams and played golf.

He married, in 1953, Dorothy Shepherd, who died in 2009. Their daughter survives him.